Drivers Give Passing Grade To E-Z Pass In Major Test

By MATTHEW PURDY

Published: August 22, 1996

E-Z Pass, the electronic system designed to speed traffic at tollbooths, was introduced at the Triborough Bridge yesterday morning and lived up to its name, allaying fears that it would cause wicked headaches for commuters there as it had on other roadways.

No long lines formed at tollbooths during either the morning or evening rush, and officials said the smooth start-up at the bridge was an important step in developing a unified electronic toll system on bridges, tunnels and roadways in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

''I think we're having a very good first day,'' said Harris M. Schechtman, a vice president of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority.

The most severe problems in introducing the E-Z Pass system occurred in May at the Throgs Neck Bridge. There, some of the tollbooths had been dedicated exclusively to drivers using the new system, causing tremendous backups at booths still taking cash and tokens.

To avoid that problem at the Triborough Bridge, no tollbooths were designated solely for the E-Z Pass system; certain booths accepted both tokens and the E-Z Pass.

Under the system, a badge bought by a motorist and placed on the dashboard is read electronically as the vehicle passes through a tollbooth, and the amount of the toll is deducted from the driver's account. Customers of E-Z Pass get the same discount as those using tokens.

Transit officials said the E-Z Pass system can handle 900 cars an hour, while a booth accepting tokens can accommodate about half that many. A full-service cash booth can handle between 200 and 250 cars an hour.

Motorists said yesterday that they were surprised at how smoothly the first day's traffic went on the Triborough. ''There were no lines, there was nothing,'' said Sid Surrey, who commutes to work from New Jersey.

But there were skeptics. Jimmy Misetzis, fixing his broken station wagon just off the bridge in Astoria, said he worried that someone could swipe the number off the E-Z Pass badge, just as people have stolen cellular telephone numbers, and plunder his account. ''I don't trust anything with numbers,'' said Mr. Misetzis, a roofing contractor.

Nevertheless, the passes are catching on. At the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, where the system was introduced last fall, E-Z Pass customers make up more than 40 percent of the rush-hour traffic.

The system, which is in place on the New York State Thruway and on seven city bridges, is scheduled to be installed at the Hudson River crossings, the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Turnpikes, the Garden State Parkway and the Atlantic City Expressway within the next few years.